How To Clean Your Grill—Just In Time For Summer Cookouts
A guide on how to properly clean your grill in preparation for summer cookouts.
John Cox
Blogs · @wyome
Tagged summer · everything
Air-beam canopy completes all-inflatable amphibious day camp
Bote, an inflatable watercraft company, has launched the Hangout Shade series—lightweight, packable inflatable canopies with UPF 50 protection that set up in under five minutes and work either standalone on land or attached to Bote's floating Hangout Dock platforms. The two sizes (Shade 7 at $669 and Shade 10 at $799) represent the company's expansion beyond paddleboards and kayaks into a broader Hangout Suite of inflatable lounging and gathering gear designed for recreational use on and off the water.
How to Score the Best National Park Campsites for Summer
National Park Service campgrounds have become increasingly difficult to book, with camping visits exceeding 13 million overnight stays in 2022, so advance planning is essential. The piece details eight of the most coveted and hard-to-reserve campgrounds across the system—from Yellowstone's Slough Creek to Acadia's remote Duck Harbor—providing specific booking windows, fees, best sites, and nearby hiking or outdoor activities for each. The takeaway is practical: start reservations six months in advance through Recreation.gov on a rolling basis, or risk ending up at an RV park instead of your dream national park campsite.
It’s Grilling Season, Which Means It’s Also Clean-Your-Grill Season—Here Are the Best Ways To Do It
Regular grill cleaning prevents buildup that degrades flavor, reduces heat efficiency, and risks foodborne illness, with a practical approach involving quick cleanups after each use plus deeper monthly maintenance. The guide recommends scrubbing hot grates with a brush or aluminum foil, vacuuming out ash and debris, scraping the grease trap, wiping the exterior with mild cleaners, and soaking removable parts seasonally, with an optional trick of using a halved onion to break up stubborn gunk.
Homemade Sour Mix
A recipe for a honey-sweetened homemade sour mix, built for making a properly balanced classic margarita rather than relying on artificial bottled mixers. It lays out the reasoning behind a good margarita—equal parts lemon, lime, and honey dissolved in warm water, plus a pinch of salt—and explains why a salted rim matters scientifically, since salt suppresses bitterness and heightens the perceived sweetness and sourness. Worth keeping for the simple ratio-based formula and the vegan swap (simple syrup for honey) if needed.
The Brazilian Way to Make Lemonade 10x Better
Angel Albring introduces Brazilian Lemonade (actually made with limes, and also called limonada Suíça, or Swiss lemonade, after Nestlé condensed milk), a blended drink from TikTok creator Snejana Andreeva that gets its distinctive creamy tang from sweetened condensed milk mixed with strained lime juice and ice. The piece walks through the blend-and-strain method, notes why peeling the limes matters depending on their bitterness, and offers variations like adding rum or cachaça, coconut milk for a dairy-free tropical spin, or freezing it into a slushie. It's a keeper for the recipe technique and the fun boozy/tropical/frozen twists as much as for the surprising lemon-vs-lime backstory.
10 Bourbon Cocktails You Need to Try
A rundown of ten classic and modern bourbon cocktails worth having in your repertoire, arguing that bourbon deserves a place in mixed drinks despite purist objections to using it beyond neat pours. It runs through recipes and quick histories for staples like the Old Fashioned, Manhattan, Mint Julep, and Boulevardier alongside lesser-known options like the New York Sour, Scofflaw, Gold Rush, and a bacon-garnished shot called the Mitch Morgan, pitching both winter sippers and summer-friendly highballs. Worth keeping as a practical reference card for mixing bourbon drinks at home rather than a deep dive into any single cocktail.
Spicy Watermelon Margarita
This is a recipe for a spicy watermelon margarita combining fresh watermelon puree, tequila, triple sec, lime juice, and muddled jalapeño, rimmed with Tajin seasoning for a balanced sweet-spicy cocktail. The piece includes the complete ingredient list, step-by-step instructions, and several variations such as a sweet watermelon margarita without heat and a watermelon daiquiri using rum instead of tequila.
Grilled Chicken Souvlaki with Dairy-Free Tzatziki
This recipe provides instructions for making chicken souvlaki, a Greek grilled meat skewer dish featuring boneless chicken breasts marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and oregano for at least 30 minutes before threading onto skewers and grilling for 3-4 minutes per side. The dish is traditionally served with tzatziki sauce and fresh vegetables or pita bread, and leftovers can be refrigerated for up to five days or frozen for three months.
This Is the Summer You Make Your Perfect Margarita
The margarita's fundamental recipe—tequila, triple sec, and fresh lime juice—is simple enough for beginners yet flexible enough for endless customization. The piece walks through seven key variables you can adjust: choosing different tequilas based on aging (blanco for brightness, reposado or añejo for warmth), tweaking sweetness levels, swapping orange liqueurs, adding fresh ingredients like chiles or herbs, deciding whether to salt the rim, serving it up or on the rocks, and topping it with sparkling additions. These modifications let you adapt the drink to your taste, available ingredients, or the preferences of whoever you're making it for.
Epicurious.com: the World's Greatest Recipe Collection
A collection of grilling recipes organized by protein type—meat, vegetables, and seafood—alongside complementary summer dishes including pasta dinners, cocktails, and fruit-based desserts like crisps and cobblers. The recipes emphasize simplicity and seasonal ingredients, designed to provide quick dinner solutions throughout the warmer months.